Republicans Wake Up to an Electoral Bloodbath
“Text from a GOP source: ‘Texas has officially fallen.'”
Some readers may remember the financial turmoil that swept global markets in 1998. Over two weeks, the Dow plunged more than 10% amid fears that the crises in Russia and Asia would spread to the U.S. Making light of the rout, iconic financial journalist Louis Rukeyser, host of Wall Street Week, appeared in a bloodied headband, neck brace, and sling, with a crutch rounding out the ensemble. That image captures how many Republicans must be feeling this morning. I do.
It was a brutal night for the GOP. We were braced for losses, but not for a rout of this magnitude. Democrats have won back control of the Senate, picking up seven seats in battleground states by margins far exceeding what the polls had predicted.
Reality set in early. Few Republicans could have imagined that far-left democratic socialist Senate candidate Angie Nixon would come within three points of unseating Republican Sen. Ashley Moody in Florida — or that Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) would win his gubernatorial race by a mere 1.3 points. From there, the night devolved.
Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) luck finally ran out. Despite routinely outperforming her polls, she lost her seat to Democratic challenger Troy Jackson by 8 points.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suffered a crushing 10-point defeat at the hands of progressive challenger James Talarico. Even incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn, I suspect, would have been swept away in Tuesday night’s bloodbath.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also lost his race. President Trump posted on Truth Social, “If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost. He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty! President Donald J. Trump.”
Trump was angry over Abbott’s August decision to “pause industry-wide approvals” on data centers until companies give the state more details about their electricity and water requirements.
Text from a GOP source: "Texas has officially fallen."
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) November 4, 2026
In Michigan, the controversial Abdul El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers by nearly 7 points. Rep. Haley Stevens, his primary opponent, made headlines over the weekend with her last-minute endorsement of Rogers — a move that may have cost her career without changing the outcome of the race. But at least she stayed true to her principles.
When the New York Times/Siena University final polls were released on Sunday, predicting larger than previously expected victories for Democratic candidates in most battleground states, many of us scoffed — myself included. As it turned out, those polls underestimated Democrats’ margins of victory.
Here are some of the highlights [Data via RealClearPolitics as of 4 a.m. November 4.]
Georgia: Ossoff 59.0, Collins 41.0 (Dem Hold)
Iowa: Turek 50.5, Hinson 46.4 (Dem Pickup)
Kansas: Hamilton 50.9, Marshall 46.0 (Dem Pickup)
Maine: Jackson 53.4, Collins 45.4 (Dem Pickup)
Michigan: El-Sayed 52.4, Rogers 45.7 (Dem Hold)
Minnesota: Flanagan 53.8, Tafoya 43.6 (Dem Hold)
North Carolina: Cooper 58.7, Whatley 39.1 (Dem Pickup)
Ohio: Brown 49.7, Husted 45.5 (Dem Pickup)
South Carolina: Andrews 51.2, Graham 46.8 (Dem Pickup)
Texas: Talarico 54.2, Paxton 43.9 (Dem Pickup)
Two Senate races remain uncalled. In Alaska, with 68% of the vote counted, Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan leads former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola by 0.8 points, 48.5% to 47.7%. Although Peltola had led Sullivan in most polls throughout the election cycle, last week’s New York Times report that her campaign had helped recruit a second Dan Sullivan to confuse voters and siphon support from the incumbent may have taken a toll. “Decoy Dan” won 1.7% of the vote and Republican candidate Gerald L. Heikes, won 2.2%.
In Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colom holds a slim 0.3-point lead over Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, 49.1% to 48.8%. In bright-red Mississippi, this race should never have been close.
At 11:18 p.m. on Tuesday night, Decision Desk HQ projected that the Democrats had won the Senate.
Decision Desk HQ projects that the Democrats win the Senate.
#DecisionMade: 11:18 PM ESTFollow live results here: https://t.co/xiVysThr3Y pic.twitter.com/rOvrPhNsV8
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 4, 2026
Shortly after 9 p.m., Decision Desk HQ projected that Democrats would regain control of the House.
Although many House races remain uncalled, Democrats have already secured 236 seats — a gain of 30 and comfortably above the 218 needed for a majority — while Republicans hold 148.
Decision Desk HQ projects that the Democrats win the House of Representatives.#DecisionMade: 9:09 PM EST
Follow live results here: https://t.co/Qkk8JsDNYi pic.twitter.com/Fg67Q8g3df
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 4, 2026
So, what the $&^# went wrong?
Apparently, voters feel worse off economically and hold Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress responsible. The war in Iran, combined with Trump’s tariffs, have driven up costs, particularly energy prices, testing the patience of Americans who expected relief.
In my view, confronting a terrorist regime that has threatened the world for nearly half a century justifies some short-term economic pain. But voters remember Trump’s promise of “no more wars,” and the prolonged stalemate is becoming difficult to defend.
While I have reservations about Trump’s handling of the war, I support his reasons for launching it. So far, no U.S. president has been willing to expend the political capital necessary to confront this regime — particularly in a midterm election year. Reports that Iran was two weeks away from acquiring a nuclear weapon added urgency. And a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a far more dangerous challenge.
Unfortunately, voters struggling to pay their bills are unlikely to spend much time thinking about threats to U.S. national security coming from the Middle East.
The same holds true for trade. For decades, the U.S. has tolerated unfair trade arrangements that have hurt our businesses and our workers. The tariffs have been instrumental in reversing some of those imbalances. But, again, the long-term benefits of tariffs are a difficult sell to consumers paying higher prices today.
Additionally, many voters have short memories. The roughly 21% cumulative increase in prices during Biden’s presidency did not disappear when Trump took office; those higher costs became the starting point for his administration. Yet Democrats and the toxic legacy media have focused relentlessly on the 3.7% inflation under Trump, giving no attention to the burden he inherited.
These distinctions matter. A fair-minded press would explain them, giving voters the context to judge this administration’s record.
As devastating as Tuesday’s electoral massacre was, Trump is hardly the first president to suffer such a rebuke. In the 2010 midterms, Democrats lost 63 House seats and six Senate seats. Republicans won back the House, but Democrats held onto the Senate. In 2014, Democrats lost 13 House seats and nine Senate seats, losing Senate control, while Republicans expanded their House majority. Then-President Barack Obama famously said, “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone.” He continued focusing on his agenda, even signing the misguided nuclear deal with Iran.
In 2006, Republicans lost 30 House seats and six Senate seats, giving Democrats control of both chambers. The next day, then-President George W. Bush described the defeat as “a thumping,” accepted a “a large part of the responsibility,” and pledged to work with Democrats.
That same day, he announced Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s departure and nominated Robert Gates to replace him — a major leadership change amid dissatisfaction with the Iraq war.
In 1994, Democrats lost 54 House seats and eight Senate seats, surrendering both chambers in the “Republican Revolution.” President Bill Clinton told reporters, “We got the message. And now we have to think about it, analyze it, rest up and move on.”
He acknowledged that voters wanted smaller, more effective government and vowed to work with Republicans to achieve it.
Asked before the election how he would respond to losing both chambers of Congress, Trump said he would become “Mr. Veto.” Eventually, he reasoned, Democrats would tire of the legislative stalemate and seek common ground on bipartisan initiatives.
He will likely work with Democratic leaders where cooperation is possible and rely on executive orders where it is not.
With the midterms behind us, the 2028 election cycle begins.
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Comments
Three possibilities:
1. There was cheating
2. Americans are stupid
3. Both of the above
Americans are stupid. I wanted to put that in the post. But voters who believe the socialists’ spin are indeed stupid.
Stupid voters like tripe. Who knew?
Nothing motivates an electorate like fear. In 2024, there was a fear of out of control illegal immigration, and Republicans, including Trump, were the straight forward solution. The fear was based in rising crime and illegals getting preferences for benefits and jobs. To some degree, Trump is a victim of his own success. The only thing that explains Democrats winning all the way down-ballot (including anti datacenter initiatives) is that there is a genuine fear of AI. It’s not just the fear of AI taking over, it’s also the impact on energy prices and the prospects of getting/keeping a job (including children who are graduating). The Democrats have presented themselves as luddites on this topic, and I think that’s why they ruled the day. I think the opposing fear of socialism is too abstract to have been a big motivating factor. Going forward, what’s the big fear factor going to be in 2028? It’s not too early to start working on understanding and or driving that dynamic.
So those who feared artificial intelligence installed organic malevolence,
Team “zero moves ahead” rules forever.
“Faced with the pain of freedom, man begs for his shackles.”
—Gerry Spence, From Freedom to Slavery: The Rebirth of Tyranny in America (1993)
“Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that great gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born… In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, ‘Make us your slaves, but feed us.’”
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
I love pickled tripe. Rolled in an egg wash then crushed cracker and fried. Yum
Reexamine Deitrich Bonnhoeffer’s writings on Stupid People and how they give their critical thinking skills away in order to be part of a club.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
We are no longer either.
I’m a non-believer and nobody challenges my patriotism. Not all of us are so terrible.
I think even people who don’t believe literally, but who take to heart christian ethics, count as “religious”.
I certainly feel like I do.
The DSA ran the table here in our AZ. Watch out for kalifornicated type gun laws cause it be coming!
Our Constitution was made also for an INFORMED electorate that has not been fully indoctrinated in favor of tyranny.
Sadly, our educational system and the vast majority of supposedly “journalistic” enterprises have fully deceived a majority of voters into a rejection of our founding principles.
This is the basic argument against universal franchise.
Stupid/uninformed people, and those who are a drain on the system, should not be allowed to vote. Period.
Said in a comment about a month or so ago the islamic piece of schiff was going to win michigan because the population is so stupid. Not did he win he kicked rino rogers butt good and hard.
michigan has a rino mentality on the repub side, dems would rather put repubs in prison or a gas chamber. Power for them is their overriding goal.
If you thought covid was authoritative aholes in charge, just watch the dems slice and dice it all these coming two years.
Nothing and no one is safe.
California voters in LA ” Gas prices are way too high”
Bass “I’m going to ban drilling for oil in LA county”
Voters “Yes, I’ll vote for you”
Both.
I’d blame Texas abortion law. Every time no-abortion shows up on a referendum, it’s soundly defeated by both left and right. No-abortion as a policy is not likely to be any more popular.
Not having such a policy is not an option. If you’re not against murdering babies then you can’t be against murdering Jews, or black people, or sick and elderly people, or poor people, or sex workers, or any other minority that some people think it’s OK to murder.
Fetuses are not babies except to parents who want them. You have to win that argument still.
Have you ever seen an ultrasound of your child when your wife was only four months along in her pregnancy? Did you notice the teeth buds? See the heartbeat? You are a despicable neighbor.
I’ve always claimed that you get a voter approval maximum setting the abortion time limit at where the fetus looks cute on an ultrasound.
That won’t make the soul-at-conception people happy, nor the you-learn-to-be-human people. But you get a solid voter position. (both positions are soul based, ironically, the latter taking the position that the soul has to do with relations to others. As in “He has no soul.”)
Settle out at cuteness, where is where society takes an interest.
Option 3, sadly. But option 1 alone is what is toxic to our entire american project – we have left the era where elections do their job of convincing the loser that they lost fair and square.
We survived the autopen years, we’ll survive these years. But it will hurt, again.
“We survived the autopen years, we’ll survive these years.”
That applies only to people under 30.
I assume there was cheating because there’s always cheating. But I’m not aware of any specific instances in this election, and cheating is neither necessary nor sufficient to explain what happened. Option 2 is the only explanation. Whatever cheating did happen only supplemented the effect of option 2.
We have been through this before. It was cheating. Across America about 100 million ballots are printed that should not be, because the voters moved or died (dirty voter rolls). The Democrats make sure the voter rolls are dirty, and protect the dirty ballots with their life. In just Los Angeles county, the voter roll is 10 million, but there are on 7 million adults. If 70% are registered to vote (about usual), then half the ballots are dirty.
Those ballots are not mailed, because everyone knows they are dirty. However, they are voted, and they vote 99% for the Democrats. This has been going on for years.
In Texas, Talicro (whatever his name is) received 500,000 more votes than any Democrat in the history of Texas.
No one should think that the next election will be any different. In most states, it’s impossible to clean up the dirty voter rolls, because the Democrats are in control. For example, in Colorado, the voter rolls were allowed to get dirty about 20 years ago. Now the Democrats have super majorities in the house and senate. All the state officers are Democrats. The judges are Democrats. They will defend the dirty voter rolls with their life. They control the elections with their dirty ballots. It is impossible to clean up the dirty voter rolls.
4. The GOP is stupid.
Well, it doesn’t help that the Republicans are ball-less and spineless. I wish they’d take off the gloves instead on constantly acting like pussies.
The Rs are Charlie Brown and the Ds are Lucy. They fall for the football trick every. single. time.
Thune, Paul Ryan, all of them worthless. Deliver. Put it up for a vote even if it fails. Fight for it. Not one key piece of legislation. The SAVE act was a win for US Citizens who overwhelmingly supported voter ID.
This my call for a new political party. The GOP are geldings. And for those who think that forming a new party is impossible, the Republicans came in. The Whigs went out.
the worms play pinochle on your snoutSo it’s not unheard of.It was a very different era in a number of important ways.
For one thing, there was no such thing as a ballot, and therefore no duopoly control of said ballot.
Also, both major parties were in such turmoil that they split, and each of them ran two separate presidential tickets. Neither of which had any ballot access problems, because there was no ballot to access.
dsa was a loser team also. Yet here we are.
I feel like Charlton Heston did at the end of the Planet of the Apes.
Where do I see about emigrating to Argentina or El Salvador?
You know where they are popping the champagne corks this morning? Beijing.
…and Tehran.
…and Brussels.
And the Ivy League.
And countries south of the border.
Every few years, the question comes up — if America turns to crap, where is left in the world to move to that is still freedom-oriented and has its priorities straight? Ironically, the answer for the past several years had been “Poland.” Great timing, guys.
The mullahs are happy, stupid voters are happy, Communist USA is happy, and Hawkeem is orgasmic.
WinRed has seen my last greenback.
I can’t compete with commie billionaires like Bloomberg and Singham.
WinRed saw my last contribution in 2015. In my opinion the program was a fraud and an insult to one’s intelligence. Who came up with it and why it was supported for so long is a wonder. Why couldn’t the Republicans come up with a better fundraising program. If we were the party of millionaires and billionaires, where was the money? Why were so many republicans texting and emailing me from around the country begging for donations? Why do we have so many RINOS? Maybe the people prefer socialism? McCarthy had it right decades ago, the communists had infiltrated our institutions, played the long term game and apparently won. Come January, they will have the votes to overturn our bill of rights. The civil war waged by the left and ignored on the right might be over.
It’s time for the Rs to become ruthless.
You can’t win by insisting on playing by gentlemen’s rules when your opponent DGAF. You have to be just as Machiavellian as they are, if not more so. Otherwise, their boot will be forever on your face.
The sheeple have spoken and it is not good for America. The coming turmoil won’t be conducive to making our country better. The coming vendettas will paralyze any progress made the past two years. God Bless America, she will need it.
You are so right. I prayed for America last night.
We saw how just four years of a malevolent puppet could pith America. The next two will be sheer hell. Build your walls high and fill your ammo cabinets.
no @Paula
the biggest problem is the Republicans have (and will continue to have) is a turnout one when DJT is not at the top of the ticket
alot of the 2016 and 2024 election wins for Republicans was via riding his coattails
and if anything, both the 2018 and 2026 midterms was a similar showcase of them starting with all 3 chambers and the GOP dragging their feet for 2 years and doing nothing, as to them not having anything to campaign on because Trump had to do 90% of everything by way of executive order
the bad press that orbits Trump also didn’t help, but it doesn’t excuse that the Republican party when put into a position to atleast try and get some legislation passed, absolutely squanders it
or just throws all their eggs in one basket like the big beautiful bill, a literal monstrosity that did nothing to address the real problems of inflation and government overspending
—
the real big defeat to me that really shows how far we overestimated any changes in the GOP in the last 2 years, are the results in Texas and Ohio
Vivek losing by a pretty sizeable margin, and ultra libs taking Texas for atleast 4-6 years foreshadows much of the problems Republicans will have in trying to win over their own voters, much less those that drift in the middle of politics
like if Republicans won’t turn out in droves to vote against the big blue machine, coupled with the seeming lack of interest in the upcoming next gen Republicans
then 2028 will also likely swing back left, only thing time to their DSA wing
I guess the only caveat is how much crazy the Dems will go in these next 2 years, and if anyone on the right and center will even care 🤷♂️
“the GOP dragging their feet for 2 years and doing nothing”
What are they gonna do when they have numerous RINO’s who won’t stick with their party?
Susan Collins
Lisa Murkowski
Bill Cassidy
Thom Tillis
Mitch McConnell
John Cornyn
Brian Fitzpatrick
Don Bacon
Mike Lawler
Marcus Molinaro
Zach Nunn
Well, you don’t have to worry about Cassidy. Letlow won, but it should not have been that close.
I still feel warm fuzzies voting Cassidy out at the primary level.
that’s what I’m getting at though
we did vote out many of those RINOs
but that next gen GOP contender LOST
and in many spots, fell flat vs a far left counterpart
if our side can’t even bring themselves to vote in droves in the offseason elections
why would we think they will do so in the presidential cycles
it is looking more and more like when Trump goes, the “conservative” brand has no one to pick up the torch
because Vivek is in many ways the opposite of Trump, but far more articulate with far less baggage
however if even he can’t get voted in a state where Trump won by sizeable margins in 3 election cycles, then we have to look at why that didn’t translate with our voter base
because if Vivek failed in Ohio …
what makes us think someone like Vance or Rubio is going to do any better nationwide ❓
Right.
Vivek, like Oz, was at base a bad candidate. Denigrating “heritage Americans” and stumping for unlimited H1Bs to replace them in the workplace with foreigners just isn’t a good look for anyone courting actual Republican voters.
Well Tennessee is ruby red. Yay me.
On a serious note, they may have voted due to spin on the Iran war and the economy, but the economy is roaring compared to when Trump took office. I don’t buy the spin.
I personally made a million (plus or minus) betting on the Trump economy. I went in hard on options (QQQ, SPY) going into his election and doubled down during the worst of the tariffs. As those matured I went back to long positions and cut my options to a quarter of the original bet.
I am slowly pulling all those bets off the table. This congress will have an agenda of slowly wrecking the economy and refilling the swamp. If it goes how I suspect it will the market will languish back to a piss ant 5% return rate.
By Feb of 2027 the agenda will be lawfare once again.
I suggest Trump nuke Iran by midnight.
Well markets are up 2% across the board this morning so maybe hang onto to those long bets.
The ‘economy’ or the markets? Only about 58% of adults own any stocks/MF/ETF and of those that do there’s no denying that ownership skews wildly to the top 15% which own roughly 98% ish of stocks.
The misidentification of the markets with the ‘economy’ is one of the main reasons for what happened. The GoP has gotta be willing to start paying far more attention to the broad middle-class the center 70%. The top 15% is doing well and can largely take care of themselves. The bottom 15% has a (far too large IMO) govt teat to suckle. Meanwhile, the broad middle-class 70% between those groups gets ignored.
We can like it or lump it but if we fail to respect the very real concerns of the middle 70% who are the core of the center/right populist/MAGA/Tea Party movement then the d/prog will happily step into the void we create with our indifference and pull them to center/left populism.
1, 58% is a majority
2. The remainder are 100% impacted by lulls in the market because it impacts every aspect of the economy
3. There are no improvements to the economy as a result of tariffs
4. The middle class is very heavily impacted by price increases to
5. America has never been manufacturing more products than present. Goes for Biden era as much as Trump era
6. For every Trump boast about manufacturing investment there is a Biden boast. American manufacturing has been strong this entire century and the last century. Voters didn’t care when Biden touted it and they don’t care when Trump does. They are not playing a video game for 14 year old boys. To them bad economic policies matter.
7. If any blue state voter wishes to have manufacturing back from Southern states like Florida and Alabama all they have to do is vote for pro-business policies because companies don’t give a dam about party labels.
8. If blue state voters don’t do that it is not my responsibility to sacrifice my entire countries economy on their behalf.
9. Cities like Pittsburgh have a tech economy in place of the steel manufacture which is healthy in the United States outside of Pittsburgh. If you want to change that run for mayor of Pittsburgh.
If you run on bread and butter issues than make tariffs to take money away from people (tariffs are a tax) the voters who put you in office punish you.
Telling people “I helped you” is a bad strategy if they think you helped them you don’t have to say it.
I agree in general, but 100% agree with the last paragraph.
Harris/Biden lost to some degree for the same reason.
If energy prices were approximately the same yesterday as a year ago, Trump still loses the House but probably holds the Senate.
Without the Iran situation, not sure how Trump could have/should have played it differently, energy prices might have been approaching historic lows and we would have seen Republicans picking up house seats and taking the Michigan senate seat.
Energy prices explain Iowa, Ohio, Kansas, and maybe to some degree Texas, but WTH happened in SC??
Bruh …The 58% figure for equity/stock ownership is highly concentrated in the top 15% about 98% of all stocks are in the hands of the top 15%. That means the remaining 85% of adults collectively hold about 2%.
When a good faith analysis is made the ‘majority’ claim you make while technically true becomes meaningless. Especially when we consider that using stock ownership as a 1 to 1 proxy for political ideology is flat wrong. Go see how many within the ‘ownership class’ as Kudlow and others like to frame it are registered d/prog, card carrying public sector union members with a DSA membership card right next to it in their wallet.
I agree about Trump and others telling folks the ‘economy is great’ when their own economic situation and that of their particular industry, community, State or region of the Country was letting kicked down by bad policies, high persistent inflation left over from Biden, new inflation from Iran conflict, high fuel/energy prices, high fertilizer costs and in some places tariff retaliation by butt hurt so called ‘allies’ like Canada who don’t like the idea of trade reciprocity or the idea that the d era of economic free riding off the USA by their prior unilateral trade barriers is over ….sure all those things definitely had voters PO and rightly so. Add the Iran conflict to the list.
The real problem wasn’t what was happening so much as the lack of good explanation and getting buy in from the public to support some short term pain. Instead of that we had a raft of OP grandees telling folks ‘all is well’ and those voters knowing damn well it wasn’t in their house, industry, community.
I agree that tariffs are a form of tax. Now explain how we eliminate the extra territorial tax imposed onto US exports by foreign governments. I prefer to use reciprocal tariffs but you seem to want a different approach. Should we use military force to stop these unfriendly acts by foreign powers that hurt our fellow Citizens trying to sell their products abroad?
Let’s not forget Zelensky and his continued strikes on Russian refineries which also contributed to higher diesel prices while we’re finding blame. He’s gotta do what he’s gotta do in his conflict but it did have an impact and pretending it didn’t is self deception.
A low amount in stocks is a major part of an American’s retirement portfolio.
To reiterate the image of Americans flooded in tariffs while America was tariff free is just untrue. There were some European/Canadian goods tariffed in America with some American goods tariffed in Europe and Canada while there were some goods from both Canada and Europe not tariffed in America and some from America not tariffed there.
But to put it this way without straying at all from reality
1. We would have a pro-American Canadian leader if we had not declared a trade war on Canada and started stupidly using that Canada as the 51st state rhetoric. We created a major nationalist backlash that saw a CCP loving globalist rise to power there.
2. Everything Republicans said when complaining about the price of lumber in the Biden years is 100% true
3. So tariffing Canadian lumber brought all of those prices up
4. The American logging industry was not struggling and did not need protectionism but Americans needed cheap lumber.
We are agreed Canada’s retaliation hurt Republican constituencies who were not enthused about it, but the American tariffs even without the retaliation hurt Americans across the board (See the 2020-2024 GOP case for cheap lumber, sneering by tariff advocates are as persuasive as sneering by Biden spending advocates).
To put exactly how badly the economy was BEFORE the Iran war
1. Trump had a 42% approval rating in his BEST polls (he now polls 38% so it isn’t radically changed).
2. Look at the impact on the elderly.
Like it or not if you make the economy bad for the elderly…..
Without older voters there is no Republican Party. This isn’t an opinion it is just the voting reality.
I think we agree
“It’s the Economy Stupid”
We just disagree on tariffs, which I think hurt the lived economy enough for this to be possible.
Look for usaid to come roaring back to fund the dems campaigns and dirty tricks.
“On a serious note, they may have voted due to spin on the Iran war and the economy, but the economy is roaring compared to when Trump took office. I don’t buy the spin.”
It WAS spin — it was spun by the left and its MSM, and the stupid voter swallowed it hook, line, and plastic straw.
No news outlet ever published this simple, easy-to-digest truth — you had to ask Grok to cook it for you “off the menu.”
Can we cane John Thune now? 🙂
He was worthless the day he became Senate leader.
I would go back to the day he was born.
The moron has actually announced he’s running for Minority Leader.
If the GOP is stupid enough to put him in as ‘leader’ after this, then they are beyond salvaging.
The Dow Jones just opened at 1,047, for what it’s worth.
Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your finances closest.
The markets, puzzlingly to this lay man, are up. Whatever, I see confiscatory taxes in the future. No taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security may not last beyond the next couple of years. My withholdings will bump up a little to head off a rude surprise in April.
It was nice while it lasted. The gimmedats are happy.
.
You only have to pay last year’s tax with this year’s withholding and estimated tax payments, to incur zero penalties.
Don’t forget…we mercifully have the Presidential Veto for two more years…so no democrat legislation will pass…gulp…I hope and pray.
SSA is a bipartisan failure of inaction. At this point frankly I’m beyond unwilling to bend to allow Boomer AARP members to run roughshod over other other generations when they relentlessly blocked every effort to reform it and stave off the looming 22% short fall.
There’s only three ways to get the funds to make up the looming 22% ish cut in current benefits and none of them will be an easy sell.
1. Cut funding elsewhere in the budget to transfer funds from general budget to SSA. How much $? Roughly half a Trillion first year. I don’t see Congress cutting $ 1/2 trillion from other programs to hand over to SSA.
2. Raise taxes. Never a popular notion. I could see the possibility of a d/prog bait and switch to lock on revenue/tax increases pledged to SSA but spent on other things.
3. Borrow the $. IMO This is what will happen b/c its easier politically and frankly nobody in DC cares about the budget deficit the National Debt enough to make dramatic changes needed to resolve it. We’re already borrowing about $2 Trillion every year anyway so what’s another $1/2 trillion to keep Boomers happy? Of course that also eventually crowds out other budget items, increases borrowing costs and makes our children and grand children responsible for the debt causing future higher taxes for them but ‘F them kids’ is gonna happen.
Along with perhaps a few small tweaks in benefits mostly around timeline for eligibility making it 20-25 years v the current 10 years and maybe on ending spousal benefit claims in future with an outside chance of compression of benefit payout to either a single universal benefit amount (setting the stage for a future Universal Basic Income) or creating 3 tier benefit payout of ‘low, middle, high’ income earning history which basically would reduce the benefits for high income earners.
SS is easy to fix. Raise the retirement age for benefits until the increased number of workers is enough to comfortably support the reduced number of retirees.
There’s no reason that increased average longevity should mean a longer vacation after working. It also means a longer time working.
Cool idea, Now you gotta sell me as a Gen X member along with the rest of the younger generational cohorts on that idea. Keep in mind that the current beneficiaries are largely Boomers and that they are dying off at 10K per day. In fact this year Boomers will be the smallest adult generational cohort for the first time. I don’t think most Boomers have realized just how quickly their political power as a generational cohort is eroding.
Their entire lives they, as generation, had the world by the tail; many lived in new homes in new subdivisions, attended new schools purpose built to support their generation, Went to college when it was far cheaper. Same for home purchase from a price to hours worked wage rate affordability basis. Many rode the stock market and property markets to more than modest wealth not b/c they were smart but b/c of when they were born.
For myself I don’t resent Boomers their built in generational advantages. That’s how the cookie crumbles so good for them. What is gonna be a shock to Boomers is just how much younger generations are ‘over’ the bootstraps arguments and resent the disdain some Boomers have displayed to younger generations financial and economic realities that are far different than theirs at similar points of life.
In sum the smallest adult generation is not likely to be successful in demanding that other generations work longer, retire later to fund Boomer benefits. We’re already paying far higher rates in SSA taxes than Boomers and have already had our full retirement age raised. Any future ‘reform’ is gonna have to include Boomers giving at least as much as other generations have already done to meet in the middle with equally shared sacrifice among all generational cohorts. Failing that willing cooperation …pound sand and let the 22% cut to benefits arrive. Most of us Gen X and younger have been aware that our SSA would be cut down for some time. We’ve built that into our retirement calculus and if Boomer beneficiaries were not prudent enough to do so, that’s on them.
As devastating as Tuesday’s electoral massacre was, Trump is hardly the first president to suffer such a rebuke. In the 2010 midterms, Democrats lost 63 House seats and six Senate seats. Republicans won back the House, but Democrats held onto the Senate. In 2014, Democrats lost 13 House seats and nine Senate seats, losing Senate control, while Republicans expanded their House majority
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The difference being the Democrats weren’t totally insane then
They are now and it seems 60% of the population is with them
Boo
@IzaBooboo
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The Chicago Public Schools budget is larger than the budgets of ten states. Their literacy proficiency rate is below 40% and their math proficiency rate is below 30% by 11th grade.
1:19 PM · Nov 3, 2026
—- and it doesn’t seem to matter
Vote Blue!
What happened was voters didn’t turn out for a Congress that did absolutely nothing they wanted done.
The Senate has spent SIXTY PERCENT of the last 2 years ‘on vacation’ under Thune, doing absolutely nothing meaningful.
Everything that got done, got done by Trump alone.
Now I don’t agree, because now they’re going to constantly impeach him and scream for the cameras and waste everybody’s time.
On the plus side, Roberts is going to have to waste the next 2 years of his life presiding over meaningless show trials, so silver linings.
Now that the Dems have the majority in the Senate, Trump has an opportunity. The next time they refuse to pass a budget and go on vacation, use Article II, Section 3 to call both houses back into session and *KEEP* them there, every day, every week, no vacation, no weekends, no pause, with JD formally presiding over the zoo until the budget is passed or the nominees for appointed positions are approved.
Wish we had an edit button.
What happened was Democrats were motivated by hatred for Trump, and Republicans were motivated by nothing, because the GOP gave them nothing to be motivated about.
“Wish we had an edit button.”
Edit button:
1. A pipe dream
2. A figment of your imagination
3. A future possibility for the 22nd century
4. A contentious issue that should not be discussed
I think he meant an edit button for after you make a comment or a spelling or syntax error on this thread 😉
That’s what I meant also.
I wrote to Santa the past ten years asking for an edit button on LI and all I got was a lump of coal in my stocking.
Syntax? Dang Dimocrats will tax anything!
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Totally!!
There are several well-established WP plugins available. No fuss no muss, no complaints from anyone who’s tried them. I don’t know why LI doesn’t just use one of them.
Florida has become the Alamo of 2026.
All the brave Texans were slaughtered last night.
A useless and indefensible outpost that by all logic ought to have been blown up and abandoned months earlier, was instead foolishly defended, but whose inevitable fall turned into a rallying cry that eventually won the war?! That doesn’t match Florida at all.
As always, its the economy… specifically inflation which people feel every day. What fed inflation? Idiotic (and illegal) tariffs and a completely unnecessary offensive war. Both entirely predictable and 100% avoidable.
The ironic thing is other than inflation, the economy is doing great. GDP growth was excellent in the last report and today’s ADP report shows a very resilient jobs market and rising wages! If not for the war, last night would have looked a lot different.
The final factor is the abject corruption of the Trump family. We didn’t see this in the first term but this time out they have been shameless. The sons, the daughter and her husband, even Trump himself. Crypto scams, involvement in prediction markets, personal investments in companies with business dependent on the DoD. It is an endless stream of disgusting grift that makes the Biden’s look like petty pickpockets. Good riddance to thhe entire family.
except there’s been no real rise in inflation as compared to the inflation rates under the Obama and Biden terms
what people are confusing inflation for, or “affordability” here, is that while inflation rates were curbed in the last 2 years, the end result was still a net negative because those don’t affect prices and cost of living
Trump’s plan in addressing this is he thinks he can grow the economy to offset the inflation
this is one of the reasons he’s so gung-ho on the whole AI (super intelligence) BS because that’s the new tech frontier that can shift markets around
the problem though is, it doesn’t erase the now 40 trillion dollar debt that is just growing and growing and growing and growing …
and it’s that debt that is driving prices sky high (inflation) and more importantly, keeping them there
I mean it’s gotten so bad that the now 3rd biggest item on the US federal budget is interest on the national debt
it’s surpassed defense spending 😑
The contention that inflation hasn’t reversed its downward trend since 2023 is simply incorrect. After peaking at ~9% inflation (as measured by CPI) trended down to under 3% by the end of 2024. It has since accelerated to 3.7% driven largely by energy costs which hit people hard because one cannot stop driving and heating/cooling their homes the same way they might be able to avoid eating out or eating steak.
Inflation under Obama and Trump 1 was consistently 2% or less.
During COVID Trump pressured the Federal Reserve for negative interest rates and this time around he tried investigating the Chairman again to force the Fed to lower interest rates. Thankfully Trump did not get his way or we’d be in even worse trouble both economically and politically.
I see our president is claiming that had he been on the ballot “we” would have won in a landslide.
Downtick me all you want but I think he is losing his grip.
Well if you’ve had assassination attempts at 3 times and threats to you your family, cabinet
And anyone that bought a MAGA
You would too
But we won in Guam!
Yeah he seems really PO and angry that the rallies didn’t translate into victory. In fairness the last few weeks he worked his ass off campaigning but he needs to come to terms that the center/right populist movement began before him, that he was able to ride the existing movement to victory 2x but that these center/right populists are NOT an automatic get, they gotta be courted and convinced mainly on their OWN economic concerns (not the stock market) the price of fuel, whether they or their kids can afford a home/live a middle class lifestyle.
Average age of 1st home purchase is above 40. Average age of 1st marriage is 30+. Median home price is now approaching $450K. Rents are ‘too.damn high’. Fuel cost dramatically higher due to Iran conflict. Utility costs up. Vehicle prices are absurd. AI/Data center concerns are very real in middle America/flyover country. Rural areas particularly agricultural areas have been hard hit economically with no relief in sight. Add to that rural hospitals going under. In large part the occasional rural voter is who put Trump and GoP over the top in ’16 and ’24 and many of them feel let down/ignored by GoP and those who tell them everything is fine with the ‘economy’ b/c the stock market is performing. These folks don’t, by and large, own stocks/MF/ETF. They don’t have a 401K b/c they work for small employers or are self employed.
What does he even mean by making that boast, other than to sooth his own ego? How does he expect anyone to take it? He’s never going to be on a ballot again, so is he just saying “you’re all permanently screwed and I don’t care”?!
Pretty much, are you surprises it’s all about him? Its always all about him.
Do not run on the economy and make the situation worse. And that’s just the start.
Unfortunately the country that will suffer most from this is Israel
I think cutting off the military aid $ was to release Israel to do what needs to be done and in the future they can produce their own weapons.
I’m more concerned about my own country thank you very much. And I’m of Jewish heritage.
Oh, and after today, I never, EVER, want to hear the phrase, ‘well you have to vote for X for the good of the party’, ever again.
We put up with that crap for Bush Republicans for decades, and the microsecond they started losing, they not only refused to vote, but started openly campaigning for Democrats.
Republicans have a HUGE RINO problem…like you said…for 40 years. Democrats, 99% of the time stick together and march in lockstep.
White smoke. Michigan has a new senator.
His Senate floor speeches will prove interesting.
PS: Follow the link. It’s worth it.
Phosphorus.
Or maybe meth.
At least my state didn’t shit the bed like the rest of the country. Fat lot it’s going to do us.
wow- the AK guy lost. It was a full clown show victory last night.
That pissed me off. Stout was proven a liar, time and again, and her debate with Brandon was akin to an unprepared high schooler debater.
It had nothing to do with either of them. A hurricane passed through and nothing local could have changed the result. Cornyn would have lost too.
I’d love to know just why he lost, given that most polls favored him. Was it because he had an R next to his name and Texans decided no one with an R should win? Or was an edgy comedic Youtuber too much for TX23 voters?
No, any Republican would have fared about the same. The voters decided to vote Democrat, for reasons that had nothing to do with the individual candidates in that district, on either side.
“Apparently, voters feel worse off economically and hold Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress responsible.”
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I disagree. In this election, voters feared Republicans more than Democrats. The secular middle in this country gets whipsawed by the extremes on both sides.
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The biggest mistake the Republican Party has made has been to continue to tie ideological purity on social issues, primarily abortion, to the fiscal conservatism and national security issues that would align with what most people “in the middle” would agree with.
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The eagerness with which Republican-controlled state legislatures behaved post-Dobbs to ban abortion ignited the undercurrent of fear that facilitated propganda on other issues, from the ostensible social safety net, to illegal immigration, et al.
Godless middle?
The Muslim middle?
The welfare middle?
A little bit. But mostly people who fear what else comes from theocracy. The vast majority of people who identify as Christian (their point of view, not yours), are not anti-abortion absolutists.
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And once shades of that theocratic purity appears, then there’s the “what else”, that gets used for all manner of propaganda launched on some basis of “being different” to stoke fear on other issues. A lot of the propaganda is bullshit, but the door was opened. Opened by numerous little things, such as no liberal even could watch Fox News or read a conservative website to get some good information about fiscal and security issues without being barraged with contant off-putting and exclusionary religious perspective. Consider your assumption right here that they must be Godless, Muslim, or from that useless eater set.
In all the thousands of beg texts I received this election season, there were a dozen or so that harped on “we’ve got to put the Bible back in schools!” I was hoping these were being sent by hoaxers and social jammers, and not actual Republican operatives who could possibly be that clueless.
Schumer declares ‘relief is on the way’ as Democrats claim Senate win: Iran war ‘must end’. The payoff for Muslims voting for Dems. Jimmy Carter, BHO and now Schumer … breathing life into the monster that wants Israel destroyed and Jews with it.
Nonsense. Abortion played close to 0 role in this shellacking. It was the economy first, specifically inflation, and second starting another offensive, forever war in the ME. This was an unforgivable betrayal of his base by Trump who literally ran on his opposition to such wars.
How do you think some people would get the idea that inflation, primarily caused by the Democrats, would be made better by voting against the Republicans who didn’t fix it fast enough?
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(How did YOU get the idea that we are in an offensive, forever war? And get the point of repeating propaganda that Trump ever promised to not use the military to take out an existential threat?)
Trump owns inflation since his re-election. The war and tariff man reignited it.
Forever war? How about we are 9 months in and there is no sign of an end when it was supposed to be 2-4 weeks. Existential threat is too laughable to even reply to.
Reply, give it a try.
I want to be educated on how Iran having a nuke, and a ballistic missile to deliver it is not an existential threat to modern western civilization.
I double dog dare ya!
Is there an existential threat? Probably. So what you DON’T do about it is to spout a bunch of bluster about total annihilation and unconditional surrender, and then waste nine months playing a meaningless game of Words With Friends with the enemy.
“I want to be educated on how Iran having a nuke, and a ballistic missile to deliver it is not an existential threat to modern western civilization.”
“A nuclear-armed Iran is nowhere near as dangerous to Americans as a socialist Democrat Party running the government, which is what’s about to happen”
–Matt Walsh
The defense contractors snapped their fingers. He jumped.
The news media played the biggest role.
Nah man abortion wasn’t really a big issue here. Especially since there’s been more than one intervening election since Dobbs and that 1st election put Trump into the WH and handed the GoP a majority House and Senate.
This was largely an anti incumbent/PO voter election, especially looking at State races. Many center/right populist voters rebuked the party in power b/c they felt ignored by the party in power.
Couldn’t disagree more. Remember the Biden “I did this” stickers on the gas pumps?
This time it was Trump. Completely different reasons for the energy prices but same political result.
These results are effing bullshit. There’s no way in hell they’re remotely legitimate.
Unfortunately there’s no way they’re not.
Do
Any of you think the republicans will defend the President and support the vetos?
We are one vote away from total
Alienation
Do you really believe that the man who brags about his skill at making deals, and backs it up by trying to make deals with terrorists is actually going to shy away from making deals with Democrats? He can’t, and he won’t.
He was on the phone with Politico, and announced that he was ready to work with the Democrats. He claims that they’ve already contacted him. Stuff your downvote.
As President, he has to say he’s willing to work with Dems. He doesn’t have to believe it, and we know the Dems would rather chew off an arm than let him shake their hand.
From blatantly crackpot ideas or straight up Marxist crap? Yes and that support will hold.
From a fairly reasonable piece of legislation (say something that’s close to 40% of the loaf for GoP) with broad support in some GoP districts/States maybe like a rural hospital funding fix? Nope probably not.
Trump gotta be strategic with his veto and not risk alienating specific GoP constituencies. I’m not at all certain that the d/prog will be clever enough to craft separate legislation that appeals to those constituencies like rural areas as an example to force Trump into either a bad veto or into supporting the bill. If they can listen to the calmer heads instead of the heedless bloodlust of vengeance motivated investigation/impeachment they could have an opportunity to solidify this midterm into a longer-term governing coalition. I have serious doubts the less vengeful d/prog will be able to restrain the wild eyed members of their coalition in particular the DSA types who will push to do ‘everything’ all at once and overreach.
He doesn’t have to worry about getting reelected.
Trump? Sure but he ain’t gonna flip out and start signing off on a DSA wish list.
If you mean Trump won’t be concerned about smart/clever ploys by d/prog to kinda force his support to legislation like my rural hospital hypothetical ….I really don’t think so. If he decides to veto the ‘adorable puppies act’ or whatever (insert popular legislation here) just to be an obstructionist and deny a legislative victory …then I predict a few things will follow.
1. His veto of the popular legislation will be over ridden and it will pass.
2. The Party establishment will work for his removal/to undermine him or stop caring about what Trump is doing.
3. He would destroy his own legacy and any hope having real influence over who his successor may be plus it would cripple his influence with the various constituencies he shafted with a petulant veto
So could he turn into a mean old man and just veto everything, including popular legislation? Sure almost anything is possible but I don’t think the probabilities support it. He likes being the ‘the guy’ the big dog, the alpha that everyone must respect and he’d be basically destroying that after the end of his term. Plus it would pretty well PO everyone d/prog, GoP establishment and especially center right populists who’d be the likely beneficiaries of the legislation he vetoed so much so that the Trump political brand would be dome for a couple generations. No possibility of a President Barron Trump in 30 or 40 years nor a political future for his older children.
Apparently, positioning yourself as the lesser evil isn’t a winning formula. Who knew?
Blue state people getting beat up by over taxation, regulations, illegal aliens and so on “please sir, can I have some more”? Quite baffling.
What I believe is the issues of the results:
1. Cheating
2. Mail-in ballots used with illegals/non-citizens/paid
3. Alaska using fake person to take away votes
4. High amount of Media for Dems vs Republicans
5. Biden had the costs very high and with 20M illegals it added more, so even with Trump cutting it and sending illegals out the costs are still high
6. People move from Blue states/Cities to Red States/Cities but do not change their voting from Dems
Eventually, he reasoned, Democrats would tire of the legislative stalemate and seek common ground on bipartisan initiatives.
I understand exactly why he had to *say* that. I also understand exactly why he doesn’t believe that. (it’s called experience)
The Dems are sharks who have scented blood. They will hold every spending bill hostage, shut down the entire government, impeach every Trump cabinet and Executive branch person they can lay hands on, bankrupt his supporters, go after Elon in Texas, strip funding from ICE, and generally go nuts. They will burn the whole house down in the hopes of blaming it on Trump. They don’t care about 2028. They want him ruined, chased out of office, and imprisoned or worse. There will be two kinds of Republicans in DC during this time, the RINO “Please don’t hurt me” wing, and the “Like heck we’ll take it” branch.
Well El-Presidente still has “a pen and a phone” as a wise community instigator said after his soon-ignored “shellacking.” This one will do the same, no doubt.
Less clear is what The Feckless Rs want to do nownthat there’s no gently losing Washington Generals gig. It’s WNBA court hockey any more, and if yr not running things yr CC n Sophie.
YOU were not expecting it. Some of us realized a decade ago that Trump was toxic to both the character and electability of the Republican Party and our warnings were ignored — twice.
I actually agree Trump makes lots of mistakes BUT
“It’s the economy stupid”
Good economic policies since 2024 would have prevented Tuesday.
I didn’t say that Trump made mistakes.
I said that Trump IS the mistake for the GOP (and especially so for the, apparently tiny, actually conservative subset.)
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